Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Millennials
are America’s biggest generation and, like it or not, they’re going to change
the world. The question is, will this change be for the better? According to a
new Gallup poll, Gen X and Baby Boomers must change along with these
millennials to make sure the future goes well. Gallup recently
released an extensive study detailing how Millennials function in the workforce.
Not surprisingly, millennials are a very different breed of employee. One of
the most notable pieces of data is workforce engagement. Whiles it’s no secret
millennials are the least employed generation, 55% percent are unengaged at
work. This number is astonishing! Combined with the 16% who actively
disengage at work, a meager 29% of millennials are actually engaged in
their job. This number is lower than any
other generation. [more...]

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Halliburton,
the oil services provider few look at fondly, paid rival firm Baker Hughes $3.5
billion in terminations fees after an attempted merger was shot down from every
direction. Halliburton is the second largest such company, with Baker Hughes in
third (first goes to industry giant Schlumberger). Once valued at $34.6 billion
in 2014, this merger would now have only been worth $28 billion given the
precipitous fall of oil over the last two years. The oil industry’s near collapse
was a major factor leading to the scuttled deal. Halliburton and Baker Hughes
both rely on oil company contracts; and, given that oil was, until recently,
too expensive to pull out of the ground for many producers, their services saw
little request. But the oil industry is slowly recovering. So what else killed
this deal? Hint: the government. [more...]

Investors
managed to make it through a volatile April modestly ahead of the game, though
individual returns were held back by one principal culprit: Apple. The tech
giant was "the biggest wealth destroyer" for market participants
during the month, according to Openfolio, a social networking platform that
compares more than 65,000 shared portfolios within its community. [more...]

Monday, May 2, 2016

On
Sunday May 1, America's Caribbean Island Puerto Rico defaulted on a debt
payment of $422 million. This island that Spanish explorers named “rich port,”
Puerto Rico, is roughly the size of Connecticut and is home to 3.5 million U.S.
citizens. How has it run up a staggering total debt of more than $72 billion,
more than any U.S. state except New York and California? Puerto Rico has been
turned into a cash-short poor port by U.S. economic manipulation along with
welfare and government pension politics. The U.S. government built Puerto
Rico's current economy on exotic tax breaks, especially for drugs. At one point,
nine of America's 12 biggest drug companies had major facilities in Puerto
Rico. [more...]